Automotive big data networking consortium

A consortium has been set up to address the challenge of increased network and computing infrastructure requirements to support automotive big data.

DENSO, Ericsson, Intel, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), NTT DOCOMO, Toyota InfoTechnology Centre and Toyota Motors have initiated the formation of the Automotive Edge Computing Consortium. The objective of the consortium is to develop an environment for connected cars to support emerging services such as intelligent driving, the creation of maps with real-time data and driving assistance based on cloud computing.

It is estimated that the data volume between vehicles and the cloud will reach 10 exabytes per month by around 2025, approximately 10,000 times larger than the present volume. This expected increase will trigger the need for new network architecture and computing infrastructure to support distributed resources and topology-aware storage capacity. The architecture will be compliant with applicable standards, which require collaboration on a local and global scale.

The consortium will focus on increasing network capacity to accommodate automotive big data in a reasonable fashion between vehicles and the cloud by means of edge computing and more efficient network design. It will define requirements and develop use cases for emerging mobile devices with a particular focus on the automotive industry, bringing them to standards bodies, industry consortia and providers. The consortium will also encourage the development of best practices for the distributed and layered computing approach recommended by the members.

In the coming months, the participating companies will initiate activities to invite relevant global technology companies and expand the consortium.